bio of J.C. DeVaughan (d150) - Caddo County, Oklahoma
Submitted by: Sheri Hammons 27 Apr 2000
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Taken from Oklahoma Living, April 2000 Issue
By Kav Rabbitt-Brower
J.C. DeVaughan will tell you he's a lucky man.He's been married
for 50 years to his best friend, has raised four children, enjoys
his 12 grandchildren and three great-grandchildren, and enjoyed
more than 39 years as an employee of Caddo Electric Cooperative in
Binger. From the patio of his home across the road from the co-
op's headquarters, he can look out over his herd, and watch the
seasons change peacefully in an unobstructed view of southwestern
Oklahoma. But he says luck was with him before he had any of these
things in his, life. DeVaughan considers himself lucky because he
flew 51 bombing missions during the intense fighting in the last
six months of World War II and he returned safely from each of
them. He flew those missions in the Air Corp's workhorse, the B-26
airplanes, or "widow makers" as they were called. Because of their
body style and cargo weight some planes weren't successful in
their attempts to become airborne, thus threatening the lives of
the crew before they ever met the enemy.
A native of Faxon, southwest of Lawton, DeVaughan moved with his
family to Binger when he was nine. Along with his six brothers and
two sisters, he worked the family farm until shortly after
graduation from Binger High School in May, 1943. Like so many
young men of that time, he volunteered for the military after
completing his education.
He joined the Army Air Corp and was soon transferred from Ft. Sill
to Texas where he took basic training and was classified as an
aviator mechanic and was eligible for gunnery school. But due to
the escalated fighting in Europe, he learned he was to be shipped
overseas sooner than expected. He landed in Casa Blanca, North
Africa February 9, 1944, where he was a member of the 320th
Bombing Group, 443rd Bomb Squad, under the command of General H.
H. Arnold. Once he was qualified to fly combat missions, he was
assigned as a photo gunner, meaning he flew with the bomb squads
and took black and white photos of the targets as they were being
bombed. He sat in the back of the plane and operated the large K17
and K24 electric cameras which were mounted in the aircraft to
shoot directly over the targets. He also carried the smaller K20
camera and would shoot photos out of the plane's windows of any
attacking enemy fighters or Allied planes that may have been hit
during the missions.
The 320th was comprised of four squadrons, the 441 st, 442nd,
443rd, and 444th, each with 25 airplanes. And each time a squadron
went up they were accompanied by fighter escorts of P-47s.
"Occasionally we had P-5Is and P-38s, but the P-47s flew escort on
most missions," he says. "Our targets were usually railway yards,
bridges, or ammunition dumps, over Germany, France and Italy. And
German equipment shipments to their front lines," he says.
"Naturally, we supplied support for our front line troops, also.
"Supporting the ground troops, specifically the 7th Army, took his
bomb group from Africa to Corsica to Sardinia to France as the
Allied forces intensified their effort to bring the war to a
close. As his assignments took him to places now synonymous with
the final days of the war, DeVaughan continued keeping a detailed
record of his military career and the missions he flew.
The paper now is the color of age, and the edges are no longer
straight, but torn and missing small pieces. They are sandwiched
between two pieces of wood held together at the top by thin wire
which used to be bread bag ties. The decoration on the front
indicates the book's original purpose was to keep cherished
autographs. He began keeping the record when he entered the
military. He recorded dates, locations, pilots' names, plane
numbers, missions and targets and other data that help him
remember details of things he thought he might forget.
Although those pieces of information help him with the details of
specific missions, they don't help him with the things he could
never forget. He remembers very clearly praying at the beginning
of each mission that the plane would become airborne and not crash
at the end of the runway. "I said a little prayer before I got on
that airplane. Every time." He remembers looking down at our
troops on the ground and being thankful he was fighting the war
from the air. "I remember looking down...I couldn't pick out the
men, but I knew they were there. I could see their trucks, their
tanks, and I would think I'm glad I'm up here instead of down
there."
And he remembers being armed on only one mission; preferring to
face the Germans unarmed should he be shot down and taken
prisoner. "We were issued .45s in shoulder holsters. I'd been told
that if you were shot down, for sure if the Germans saw you had a
weapon, then they'd shoot you." To someone for whom the war is a
part of history, his tattered book is akin to a chronological log
of his movements.
To DeVaughan it's people, sounds, smells, and feelings associated
with another time on the other side of the world. As he gingerly
handles the pages, DeVaughan tells of each mission, making it
difficult to believe he ever thought he might forget any of his
experiences. His first mission was over the Po River Valley and
Mountains in northern Italy, November 10, 1944; they met 30 enemy
fighters. He flew one more mission over northern Italy, then three
over France and 46 over Germany. He says it was lucky for the
Allied troops that Germany hadn't perfected the technology earlier
in the war. "They could only make one pass, then they had to go
re-fuel," he says. "But they knocked down at least one plane
during four of the 51 missions."
DeVaughan says he's lucky also that he was as young as he was and
joined the fighting so late in the war. "It wasn't nearly as bad
as it was at the beginning of the war. Those guys that were fly
ing in the early part and the middle part of the war had to
contend with more German fighters," he explains. "The Germans were
much stronger, and had more ammunition than they had during the
last six months. So I was fortunate that I was as young as I was
and got in on the latter part of the war."
The timing of his participation was also beneficial to DeVaughan.
"If the war would have continued, I could possibly have had to fly
another 14 missions," he says. "It was compulsory to fly 65
missions before going home. If I'd have had to fly 14 more
missions, I may not have made it." But the war did end; just six
days after DeVaughan flew what would be his final mission. He then
found himself in France where he began the journey home. He was
looking forward to resuming the life he had thought he would live
before anyone heard of Adolf Hitler, or the infamy that would
forever be associated with Peal Harbor.
In June, 1946 DeVaughan went to work at Caddo Electric. He worked
as a groundman and then as a lineman. It was during the winter of
1948 that being a lineman for a rural electric cooperative turned
out to be extremely lucky for DeVaughan. "We went to Southeast
Electric co-op in Durant to help them rebuild their system after
an ice storm hit. We had to rebuild about 900 miles of line and
were there for about six weeks," he says. While he was there, he
went on a double-date with June Lance. He went back to Binger in
February, 1949, then returned to Durant in May to marry June. They
celebrated their Golden Wedding Anniversary May 25, 1999.
After a brief departure from Caddo, DeVaughan returned in 1952
where he was the warehouseman for about five years. He then became
the Co-op's accountant for 10 years; office manager for 10 years,
and administrative assistant for 10 years; for the final two years
of that period he was also the assistant manager. It was working
for the Co-op that got DeVaughan in a plane again. He says in the
55 years since he came back from World War II, he's only flown
three times, all were to attend Co-op related meetings. "I have no
desire to fly anymore," he says. He grins and adds, "I'm scared."
"Jay was my right hand man," says Roy Stone, director of member
services for Caddo Electric. "Anytime I had any questions, when I
first started (at the Co-op), I'd always run across the hall to
Jay." DeVaughan's son Keith is continuing in his father's
footsteps, as he is also a Caddo Electric employee.
DeVaughan was not only generous with his co-workers, but with his
community as well. He has served as the past president of the
Binger Rotary Club; commander of the local VFW post; and senior
vice-president of the Oklahoma Association of Accountants, along
with giving of his time and talents to the Binger Baptist Church.
DeVaughan is a friendly man, gracious, with a warm handshake, and
one of the few soldiers who could probably still fit into his
uniform, if he hadn't thrown it away. "I regretted that the day I
did it," he says. Today he speaks of his role in the war, and his
subsequent contributions to life in southwestern Oklahoma, with
humility and an emotion that can only come from having experienced
war and survived it. "We were just a group of men doing a job," he
says. "A job we were asked to do for our country."
Now, he says teasingly, he's self-employed raising cattle and
grass, driving his tractor and sitting on the porch watching
what's going on across the road at Caddo Electric Cooperative.
"Yes, I consider myself a lucky man," he smiles.
(Permission was given by Bob and J.C. Devaughn)
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